"By the streams of Babylon,
we sat; and then wept,
as we remembered Zion.
When, on the poplars,
we hung our harps,
our captors asked for song.
Our tormentors wanted songs of joy:
'Sing to us one of the songs of Zion!'
How could we sing YAHWEH's song
in a strange and alien land?
If I forget YOU, O Jerusalem,
may my right hand fall useless!
May my tongue cleave to my palate
if I remember you not,
if Jerusalem is not the first of my joys."
- Psalm 137:1-6
(A Christian cannot feel entirely at home in a world, where religion is just a matter of mild curiosity, or even an object of violent attack. But we will not succumb, we will not forget what people we are; nor we will just wait passively for the end, but vigorously repel the attacks to which the Church is subject.
The passionate love for Jerusalem and the LORD is above everything. Revelation 14:8; 16:19; 17:5; 18:2; 10:21 accepts the axis of the psalm Jerusalem/Babylon to refer to the new Jerusalem and the great city symbol of evil. Does faith pain us? Do we sweat blood in order to keep a faithful love for the LORD? Whom do we love with all our being, even at the cost of our physical integrity? We pray with this psalm, united with all those who love GOD above everything.
This perhaps is one of the most difficult of all the psalms. It should be a reminder to us that evil will continue to be all around us.)
No comments:
Post a Comment